| Fastest Growing Brwery in the Nation Oskar Blues Brewery enjoyed its fourth straight year of significant growth, increasing its revenues 121% and its beer production by 64% according to newest statistics. The company -- the nation's first hand-canning craftbrewery -- makers of canned Dale's Pale Ale, Old Chub Scottish-Style Ale, Gordon and other canned and draft beers -- produced 8219 barrels of beer in 2006. In 2005 the company produced 5000 barrels. (A barrel of beer equals 31 gallons.) Oskar Blues Brewery's revenues grew from $787,000 to $1.7 million. The company leads the nation's craft brewery trade, which enjoyed overall production growth in 2006 of 11.7%. First Gas, Now Barley The price of barley, a key ingredient in making beer and whisky, is rising as a result of booming demand for corn and other feed stocks for bio-fuels such as ethanol. In the past year, barley futures prices have risen 85% and U.S. production has dropped to its lowest point since the Great Depression. |
| NASCAR MEANS WINE If the notion of NASCAR as a luxury destination seems far-fetched, you obviously haven't attended a race recently. A new Nielsen Sports survey shows wine consumption among NASCAR fans is up 22% from last year. Fans can now buy wine in the grandstands, and this year tracks are offering special wine tastings at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, an exclusive lounge at Phoenix International Raceway where anywhere from $1,900 to $4,000 gets you a great view, gourmet foods, and, of course, wine. And at California Speedway in southern California, a new Wolfgang Puck restaurant with an extensive wine list. The NASCAR-tied vintages of Bennett Lane, named after the vineyard owned by Randy Lynch, a former racer with a NASCAR team who was the first to put grapes on a car, have even received 90+ scores from the prestigious magazine Wine Spectator. The reason for the business class upgrade? It's simple, at least according to Texan racing legend A.J. Foyt, who says it's all the big corporate sponsorship money. "It brought in all those Ivy League boys who like wine. I'm not into that crap. Wine, that's not A.J., beer is A.J." Well said, and God bless you, A.J.! |
Feature News from beernexus.com
| Don't Think, Just Drink Good beer is not something you should think about. Knowing what's in a beer, or who made it, can taint your taste buds, a new study finds. Past research has revealed that knowing the brand or other information about a product can lead to higher consumer ratings. Leonard Lee of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues had 388 patrons of a pub taste-test two types of beer: a regular beer and the "MIT brew," which was the regular beer plus a few drops of balsamic vinegar. The tasters were divided into three groups. One tasted the samples "blind," with no knowledge of the secret ingredient. A second group found out about the vinegar before tasting the MIT brew. The third group learned of the additive immediately after tasting the special brew, but before indicating a preference between the two beers. The blind group preferred the MIT brew over the regular beer significantly more than either of the informed groups. Apparently, vinegar can improve a beer's taste, the scientists said. The timing of information made a substantial difference in beer choice. Patrons with prior knowledge of the ingredient showed a much lower preference for the MIT brew compared with those who learned of the vinegar after drinking it. If the vinegar knowledge had acted as just another factor--like temperature or sweetness--in a patron's beer preference, the scientists would have expected similar results from both groups. This wasn't the case, suggesting disclosure affected the actual taste experience. |
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